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The Stony German Road to War - A DD 1.2 + HSR 2.08 AAR

Finally the Historical Stony Road - MOD is also released for DD (v2.08).
I guessed it would be a good idea to write an AAR here to give players who did not take a look at this mod yet some insight whats it all about and if they might want to try it out themselves. Unfortunately my skills as AAR writer are limited as I am no native english speaker and am therefore focusing more on the picture + short description approach. Still I might manage to drop in a few fictional events when something important happens, but dont expect them to be as well written as some of the excellent AARs around here.

The Historical Stony Road Mod
I am not related to this mod, but really appreciate the hard work the development team is putting into it to make it a completely different gaming experience. The users and developers are usually more frequent found in the forums of their website www.stonyroad.de (where you can download the mod but need to be a registered user) then in the forums here what leads to the mod being not as well known like he IMHO deserves. But whats it all about?

dec152000 posted a pretty good summary on the stony road forum:

The point to the mod is to increase the historical realism of the GAME into something more like a WW2 SIMULATION. All of our efforts focus in this direction. Generally, we do this by changing the game system, units and technologies to provide more realistic combat results. We also have a large number of events designed to provide a more interesting and historical feel to the game. We have also done a large amount of work tweaking the AI to provide a more realistic challenge. If you are interested in playing a fairly "historical" WW2 campaign HSR2 provides a great platform.

In HSR you will have to choose two difficulty levels. First the one of HOI2 itself and in the game you choose your HSR level. You should select the same levels.

HSR also has some house rules that should prevent exploiting:

Also it's always a good idea to have 10000+ supplies since many beneficial events fire only with a sufficient supply stock...

Additionally I wont reload besides game crashes or other weird stuff happening since the historical generals had no second chance either and will try to avoid gamey playing but instead play the "what would have I done?" way mixing historical needs with personal preferences...

This campaign will be played Hard - Hard - Agressive - if you are really looking for a challenge you might want to try out the Gröfaz difficulty

This fact had favored the change of gouvernment, but now was the time to please the masses. Therefore a huge buildup program had been started to achieve lower unemployment rates by improving Industry and Infrastructure.

Improving and expanding the Kriegsmarine would boost the self confidence and the diplomatic strength of Germany, employ a lot of men and was of good use to propaganda - therefore this project was considered very useful.

The hordes of the SA and their actions were feared by the public. This terror had helped to establish the power of the actual gouvernment, but once feeling safe a struggle for power began behind the scenes:

"Die Nacht der langen Messer" was a turning point and from now on especially the SS was on its rise. It would not be the last intrigue Germany had to face in the upcoming years and the actions of Hitler, Himmler, Göring and Stalin should be a warning for us all what men is capable in his strive to absoloute power and how the truth and the media can be manipulated even today.

@Casluerj
Thanks! Hopefully we will see some more AAR's since Japan, Italy and the SU are for sure also a challenge.

@DirtyCommiePuke
Thanks! This is my first game using DD and I am really eager to see what difficulty the probably improved DD AI and HSR will provide when you try not to abuse them including no reloading.

@armocore
you should - there are additional historical events for almost every nation
And even playing a german GC is feeling different, adding some serious replay value if you are already a bit bored of vanilla. And if vanilla is too easy for you simply try winning a "gröfaz" game - ouch!

@Casluerj
Thanks! Hopefully we will see some more AAR's since Japan, Italy and the SU are for sure also a challenge.

@DirtyCommiePuke
Thanks! This is my first game using DD and I am really eager to see what difficulty the probably improved DD AI and HSR will provide when you try not to abuse them including no reloading.

@armocore
you should - there are additional historical events for almost every nation
And even playing a german GC is feeling different, adding some serious replay value if you are already a bit bored of vanilla. And if vanilla is too easy for you simply try winning a "gröfaz" game - ouch!

The Precise History of New England -AARWriter of the Week 5/21/06-2/28-06
doot doot doot 4D6574 ●Owner of 1 Yoyo dollar, $4-anonymous4401Fan of the Week 2/8/06-2/15/06Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

@armocore
That's great - so you already know what awaits you
What country do you plan to play?

@lifeless
Thanks! I might need it. Did not play in a while and got for sure "rusty" - wondering how the AI will do

@Thistletooth
As far as I get it reading the stony forum feedback is pretty good so far even if there might be some tweaking issues.

@Draigh
Great, that's why I started my AAR. Playing a MOD adds so much replay value but every MOD has its flavour and focus. Hope this and other MOD-AARs can give you a preview whats it like so you can decide which MOD you give a chance.

Showcase of the Week March 30, 2004 - The Australian Lion.
Writer of the Week March 6, 2005 - Under the Crimson Skies.
Writer of the Week May 29, 2005 - The Sacred Grove of Britannia.
Showcase of the Week January 17, 2006 - Under the Crimson Skies.

The world was shocked when civil war erupted in Spain, and the different ideologies clashed together. The major democracies did favour the Nationalists and supported them indirectly. Italy, Germany and the SU sought to increase their influence even though many argue that the SU just took it as an opportunity to sell old weapons in return for the huge spanish gold reserves because Stalin knew a communist Spain would never be tolerated by the Allies.

@armocore
Yes, I am really curious how hard the "hard" game will be.
I intended to play on gröfaz difficulty, but the penalties are simply too harsh for me since i am not a crack player. So I rather go the hard way in combination with limiting myself to no reloads and trying to avoid gamey, unrealistic moves.
What difficulty will you probably play?

@anonymous4401 & Sir Humphrey
Thanks

@Edzako
In Gröfaz I would have probably a hard time getting thru the french defenses, but on hard difficulty I hope to achieve historical progress and the showdown will probably be on russian soil.